yeah, you're right, i did go a bit extreme to make a point, there... the canon *does* support the fact that Dean took some of that to heart... but I don't think it's necessarily a cliche-thing as fic so often makes it... it's a Dean-is-quite-fucked-up thing.

like, it becomes more and more obvious that Dean is not in fact a badass extraordinaire, but actually quite broken. There are instances in the canon which suggest that Dean's so keen to save everyone else's life because they're worth more than his own - like in Faith (which was on tele here last night, woot), how he outright says that cancer!girl deserves life a lot more than he does. which is okay, yay, Dean isn't vain, but dude - how many lives has Dean saved? how much good has he done? And like in Nightmare - the whole "you'll have to shoot me first" with no hesitation... not thinking of the consequences. I don't think Dean's necessarily convinced that Sam needs him as much as he needs Sam (and Sam's not really helping on that front).

And i freaking LOVE that Sam says that in Something Wicked - I love it so hard. The fact that Sam does see and acknowledge that opening up a whole new facet to the text, that takes it that step further away from stereotype/cliche.

but anyway, i'm rambling.